Our Culture Night was a warm, joyful and uplifting evening of Afghan culture, storytelling, art, food, fashion, conversation and dancing — but it was also an evening of solidarity and campaigning for the rights of Afghan women and girls.
We were delighted to bring together people from different backgrounds to celebrate the richness and diversity of Afghan culture, while creating space to talk about the realities facing women, girls and gender diverse people in Afghanistan — and what we can do together to support the growing international campaign to end gender apartheid.
Stories, art, fashion and food
Culture Night gave us the opportunity to experience Afghanistan through the stories and creativity of members of the Afghan community.
Our “human book”, Latifa Jawadi, took us on a fascinating journey through stories of Buddha, potatoes and the different ethnic groups that make up Afghanistan, giving us a glimpse into the country’s extraordinarily rich history and culture.
Habiba Forough brought Afghan fashion and design to the evening, while Hadis Mohammadi shared her artwork with us.
And, of course, culture is also about food. A huge thank you to Sakina Maysam for preparing the wonderful Afghan food that brought everyone together around the table.
Campaigning to end gender apartheid
Alongside celebrating Afghan culture, we wanted the evening to create space for an important conversation about solidarity and action.
LGBTQ activist, Haya Sediqi moderated a powerful discussion with Mahbooba Faiz, founder of OSYAN, Saeed Safi, founder of the Afghan Times and youth activist Alina Ali about the situation facing Afghan women, girls and gender diverse people and the international campaign for the recognition of gender apartheid.
Mahbooba spoke about her campaigning to have gender apartheid recognised as a crime against humanity, and about the ways people outside Afghanistan can stand in solidarity with those resisting the systematic exclusion of women and girls from education, employment and public life.
You can follow and support the End Gender Apartheid campaign on Instagram:
Follow the End Gender Apartheid campaign on Instagram
And the campaigning continues. We encourage everyone to come along to the upcoming Awareness and Fundraising Evening Supporting Education for Afghan Women:
Find out more and register on Eventbrite
We hope Culture Night can be the beginning of more conversations, connections and, importantly, collective action.
Sustaining ourselves and each other
Working for human rights, justice, equality and peace can be difficult and exhausting work. Activism also means thinking about how we sustain ourselves and the people alongside us.
Niamh Flynn helped us take a moment together to acknowledge one another and send each other some good energy — a simple but important reminder that movements are built not only through campaigning, but through relationships, care and solidarity.
And then we danced!
No Culture Night would be complete without music and dancing.
A huge thank you to Fatima Jawadi for getting everyone onto their feet and bringing the evening to such a joyful close.
Thank you to everyone who came along — everyone who shared a story, listened, talked, ate, laughed, danced and helped create such a welcoming sense of community.
And special thanks to our organising committee — Miranda, Niamh P, Thomas, Niamh F, Mahbooba, Basira and Latifa — and to all the volunteers who gave their time and energy to make the evening possible, including Sally, Jacob, Trevor and Kelvin.
This is just the beginning
We hope this is just the beginning of more campaigning together.
We want to continue building solidarity with the women and girls of Afghanistan, supporting Afghan activists and communities, and adding our voices to the international campaign to end gender apartheid and have it recognised as a crime against humanity.
Thank you to everyone who helped make Culture Night such a special evening.
Comhlámh is grateful to Irish Aid at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for ongoing funding support for our work. Irish Aid is “the Government’s overseas development programme which supports partners working in some of the world’s poorest countries. Irish Aid also supports global citizenship education in Ireland to encourage learning and public engagement with global issues”. Comhlámh events and publications do not necessarily represent or reflect DFAT policy.